As Goethe once said, “All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden
tree of life springs ever green.” This statement completely applies to
the situation in Venezuela. We have written many pamphlets, articles,
and books on the revolutionary situation in Venezuela, but it is
actually being in Venezuela that is the best way to confirm these
theories.

As Goethe once said, “All theory, dear friend, is grey, but the golden
tree of life springs ever green.” This statement completely applies to
the situation in Venezuela. We have written many pamphlets, articles,
and books on the revolutionary situation in Venezuela, but it is
actually being in Venezuela that is the best way to confirm these
theories.

The festival is really in full swing now. It has many similarities with
the Social Forums we have seen around the world, but with more cultural
activities. However, the focus of the program is on the political
meetings and all the debates. The meetings take place all over Caracas,
in public as well as rented buildings. The main centre of the Festival
is the Teatro Teresa Carreño, next to the Central Park of Caracas, but
the largest hall is probably the Salòn Venezuela at the Fuerte Tiuna
military compound, with room for around 1600 people. Marxist.com
supporters are intervening at most of the central discussions of the
festival, and Alan Woods spoke today at the Salòn Venezuela about
militarism (read more on this issue here).

Some of the most inspiring speakers at the festival are the
Venezuelans, who continually defend the revolution and its conquests,
and speak of the desire to push the revolution forward.

The main slogan of the festival is “For peace and solidarity, we fight
against imperialism and war”. But some seem to have gone beyond this
slogan, and at most of the sessions socialism is discussed as a way of
achieving peace.

The mood here is revolutionary, even most of the soldiers stationed to
protect and help the delegates of the festival are talking about the
revolution with great sympathy. They are mainly young conscripts who,
as well as the other large parts of the working class of Venezuela,
have benefited from the revolution too.

The volunteers of the Festival are very revolutionary as well, and many
of them see their help to the Festival, as helping to spread the
Venezuelan revolution to other countries. Many layers of Venezuelan
society (except, of course, for the bourgeois press and the opposition
in general) are helping out with the Festival, and you often feel that
the state supports the Festival too. One worrying thing is the
bureaucracy that one can see in the organisation of the World Festival.
While thousands of volunteers work very hard to organise everything and
we hear about some of them going 2 or 3 days with no sleep whatsoever,
we also hear about problems and manoeuvres in all the Preparatory
Committees from all over the world, including the Venezuelan
Preparatory Committee.

Apart from the Festival there are many little things you hear and see,
which tell you about the revolutionary process here in Venezuela. For
instance, you see loads upon loads of revolutionary slogans on the
concrete walls of Caracas, in the form of large paintings or smaller
graffiti. Imagine for instance any European or North American city that
replaced huge chunks of the normal hiphop-graffiti and nametags, with
slogans in support of the revolution! Slogans like “¡Uh!¡Ah!¡Chavez no
se va!” and “Chavèz, amigo, el pueblo esta contigo” (Chavèz, friend,
the people are with you) are quite common. In some rare places pictures
of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Bolivar standing together in profile can be
found, typically together with socialist slogans.

On a side note, some of you might have noticed that there were local
elections in Venezuela last Sunday. Chavez’s party and the other
Bolivarian parties won about 80% of the total cast votes in the
elections (Read more about this on venezuelanalysis.org). There were
many abstentions, but this was not due to the calls of the opposition
for people to abstain. Naturally, in some well off areas the
abstentions were because of this, however in the strongholds of the
Bolivarian revolution - the working class areas and the shantytowns -
abstention was quite high because people feel that some “Chavista”
candidates do not really represent them. The people trust Chavez and
have no time for some councillors that talk revolution and do nothing.
This does not mean that the revolution is going down hill, on the
contrary, we have seen how everybody gets involved in different
grassroots organisations on a community level or industrial level. Some
comrades had the opportunity to visit some popular areas of Caracas and
it is really amazing to hear people from all generations talking about
how they work for their local Healthcare Committee, Water Committee,
and Meeting Point for Women, and how all these organisations improve
the living standards of the people in the barrios. Another aspect is
the huge explosion that has taken place in the development of the
media. People come together to set up their own radio stations and
outlets. They have very few means with which to do this but do it with
a lot of hope. Their aim is to provide good information and
entertainment for their neighbours. Street vendors sell little books
with the latest laws and they sell like hotcakes outside the schools.

It is worth noting that all sales of alcohol had been prohibited from
bars, liquor stores and supermarkets on the Saturday before the
elections. It is also worth mentioning the fact that the Caracas metro
was free on Sunday. The Venezuelan population were given measures to
focus on democracy and come to the voting polls. This stands in stark
contrast to the opposition’s claims of dictatorship. The second state
TV channel (Vive TV) went around the areas looking for ordinary people
to interview about the elections, as well as about their daily lives,
and their political and social activities.

Aside from the revolutionary mood at the Festival, Venezuela still has
a lot of problems. On the way back and forth from the Festival area to
the accommodations in Ciudad Miranda, one drives through large
shantytowns, which have no water, sewers or jobs. The general rate of
unemployment stands at around 11%. This can be felt in the streets of
Caracas, where thieves and hustlers make the streets unsafe at night.
Stories are circulating around the Festival of delegates getting
mugged, threatened with guns and the like. There is a long way to go
for the Venezuelan revolution, but at the moment, there is light at the
end of the tunnel, especially because this Festival will help to spread
the revolution a little more.